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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24556642">Gone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlonelyyogurt/pseuds/sadlonelyyogurt'>sadlonelyyogurt</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Outsiders - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>All The Sad Tags, Canon Era, Canonical Character Death, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Hurt No Comfort, I Made Myself Cry, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Multi, Post-Canon, most of the relationships are only hinted at/mentioned, this is... sad, this whole universe is kinda messed up tbh, you'll miss some of them if you blink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:09:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24556642</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlonelyyogurt/pseuds/sadlonelyyogurt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Randy skips town.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bob Sheldon/Sherri "Cherry" Valance, Johnny Cade/Dallas Winston, Johnny Cade/Ponyboy Curtis, Marcia/Sherri "Cherry" Valance, Randy Adderson/Bob Sheldon, Randy Adderson/Marcia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Gone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hey guys, i've been reading sad outsiders fic recently so then i wrote this. </p><p>enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bob was gone. </p><p>Bob was gone, and if Bob was gone then so was Randy.</p><p>He did just what he said he would. Just what he told Ponyboy a few days before the trial. He grabbed a gun, Bob’s letterman jacket and all the dough he could carry, and he left.</p><p>He almost felt bad, dipping like that. But his old man was hardly speaking to him after everything, and his mother was never around much anyway. </p><p>He left a note for Marcia, climbed up to her window to leave it there while she was asleep. He watched her for a few moments as she breathed softly in and out, the pale moonlight illuminating her peaceful face. He could recall so many times before when he’d crawled through that very window, silently so not to disturb her sleeping parents. Marci would let him in and laugh when he tripped on the windowsill and fell flat on his face. Then she would help him up and kiss him and lead him to the bed and well, it always led to other things. Things he’d rather not think about anymore.</p><p>So he simply taped the letter to the glass and hoped it would stick until she found it in the morning. He didn’t remember what he’d written on it, if he was being honest he didn’t remember much at all from the past few weeks. His last solid memory was of that black haired boy backing away from them, eyes wide with terror, glancing over to where Ponyboy was fighting for his life. </p><p>Randy didn’t know the exact moment Bob had been stabbed. He’d been looking away, over at Ponyboy, laughing as the kid’s sweatshirt was soaked through and he thrashed and squirmed. And then suddenly Bob let out a low, choking cry to his right and Randy’s world crumbled beneath his feet.</p><p>Randy knew Marcia would be sad to see him go. She always liked him, even if she had let herself get picked up by that drunk Mickey Mouse fanatic greaser. Even if she always did like Cherry a little more. Randy couldn’t blame her.</p><p>He slipped down from her windowsill, but not before taking in her face one last time. He’d miss her. He just hoped she and Cherry would be okay, though he knew it would be a while before they found any semblance of normal. It would certainly be a while for him.</p><p>He drove to the graveyard, the first time he’d done so since everything. He didn’t want to go. There were too many ghosts there, too much love lost. But he told himself this was the last time he’d probably ever get the chance to visit Bob, and he owed Bobby that much at least.</p><p>Bob’s grave looked shiny and new compared to some of the others. He was buried next to his uncle, who was killed in the second world war, and his grandparents. Randy wondered what it would be like to have the legacy in Tulsa that Bob’s family did. Bob was his parents only child, and now that he was gone, he'd taken that legacy with him.</p><p>“Hey Bobby,” Randy murmured, careful to keep his voice down because it was after hours. “We really fucked up, didn’t we?” He gave a watery, bitter laugh. There was nothing funny about the situation, nothing funny at all, but Randy hadn’t laughed in what felt like so long. He’d been faking smiles since the day Bob died, and even though that was only a little over two weeks ago it still felt like it had been a lifetime since Randy felt anything but empty or hopeless or sad. </p><p>“I’m skipping town,” he told Bob. “Can’t-can’t stay here anymore, Bobby. Hurts too much, hurts when I walk into school and you’re not there. Hurts seeing your parents, how they’re fallin’ apart. Hurts seeing your Cherry Cola, how she’s grievin’ for ya. How she loves ya, Bobby. Loved.” He choked on a sob. “It hurts, it hurts so bad. I can’t stand it ‘cause you ain’t fucking coming back.”</p><p>Randy kneeled down then, if only to be closer to Bob. If only so he could run his fingers across the headstone, the smooth words that read <em> Beloved son, cherished friend </em>. He knew people would come to visit the graveyard, and they might pass by the grave, might read it. And that was all they’d ever know about his Bob. </p><p>“I don’t hate those greasers, Bob. I’ll never forgive Cade for what he did to ya, but I don’t hate him. He did it ‘cause he loved Ponyboy, and I can’t hate him ‘cause I know I woulda done the same for you.” Randy cried then, breaking down like he hadn’t let himself before. He cried on Bob’s grave and wondered stupidly if Bob could feel it.</p><p>“You got taken from us all too soon, Bobby. I love ya, you know that? Some days, I don’t even believe you’re gone. But there’s this ache in me, and I don’t think it’ll ever go away. I shoulda stopped you from going after those kids, Bob. That’s what I get, you know, for fighting. For hating people. Nobody deserves none of it, that’s the truth. Not even Dallas Winston. We don’t deserve none of it.”</p><p>He cried a while longer, just sitting there, imagining Bob’s presence. Imagining he was there, sitting next to him, because they always had enjoyed each other’s company more than anything. </p><p>A few hundred feet away were two more brand new headstones, both of them a deal smaller than Bob's. Randy stood and walked towards them before he really knew what he was doing. Johnny Cade and Dallas Winston. It was almost poetic, how they were buried next to each other. Randy had heard rumors of Winston going crazy when the black haired kid died. Some people said Dallas Winston was in love with him. Randy didn’t have a hard time believing it.</p><p>He set his attention on Johnny Cade’s grave. It made him think of Ponyboy. Randy wasn’t stupid, Johnny Cade had murdered for the kid. It wasn’t a thing someone did for just a friend. Besides, the way Ponyboy talked about Cade, the way he wouldn’t accept he was gone… it felt an awful lot like how Randy felt about Bob. Like a part of him was missing, like his heart had been stripped raw.</p><p>He looked down at the grave and knew it wasn’t Johnny’s fault, really. Randy had blamed him at first, just to have someone to blame. But it was nobody’s fault, not even Bob’s.</p><p>That still didn’t mean Randy didn’t blame himself for the lot of it.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he said. He wasn’t sure who he was apologizing to. Bob, for letting him down? Johnny, for jumping him in the first place? Dallas, because he lost the person he cared about most? Maybe Randy was apologizing to all of them. And not just Dallas and Johnny and Bob, either. Everyone in the whole damn graveyard, because he was sorry, so sorry, that it had been them and not him.</p><p>There was too much fighting, too much pain. That’s why Randy was leaving. Even though he knew anywhere else probably wouldn’t be much better, he couldn’t take it anymore. He just couldn’t stand being in Tulsa, Oklahoma anymore.</p><p>He fled the graveyard then, as the groundskeeper shouted at him “hey, kid!” But Randy was gone before the man ever got a good look at his face.</p><p>Randy drove past Valance’s house on the way out of town. He almost stopped by the curbside for a moment, but he just kept on driving, giving her a silent goodbye. Wishing the best for her, hoping maybe she’d be okay if she had Marcia.</p><p>The first light of dawn was creeping up over the horizon, the beginnings of the sunrise reflecting gold off the windows of the buildings. Randy was reminded of a poem he’d read in English class, a long time ago. Something about how things that are beautiful will eventually die. It was a real sad poem, if Randy thought about it too long. He was pretty sure he knew what the author meant by it, now.</p><p>It wasn’t long before he was out of Tulsa, wheels spinning faster than ever on the highway. </p><p><em> I’ve left it behind </em>.</p><p>The thought was freeing, in a way, if not a bit saddening. He let a few tears slip down his face as he drove into the sunrise, Bob’s letterman jacket sitting in the passenger's seat next to him.</p><p>“Where’re we going, Bobby?”</p><p>Bob had always wanted to visit California.</p><p>“Then California it is.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i always did have a soft spot for randy :'( I may write another chapter of this, but i'm not sure yet what it would entail. </p><p>thanks for reading! kudos and comments give me life &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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